Technical Abstract:
Clinical signs of African swine fever (ASF) are inapparent at early stages of infection and at later stages they resemble those of some other swine diseases. A rapid, preclinical diagnosis at the site of the suspected disease outbreak would be extremely useful for controlling ASF. To address this need, a fluorogenic probe hydrolysis (TaqMan®) PCR assay for African swine fever virus (ASFV) was developed and evaluated in experimentally infected swine. This sensitive and specific one step-single tube assay, which can be performed in two hours or less, detected viral DNA in tonsil scraping samples 2 to 4 days prior to onset of clinical disease. Thus, the assay would have application for preclinical diagnosis of African swine fever and surveillance and/or emergency management of a disease outbreak.